4 Essential Elements of a Powerful Sales Pitch

Digital marketing has given us the power to create more powerful sales pitches than ever before. Why? Because there are now so many more ways to reach your target market. Every touchpoint is an opportunity to pitch your product or service.

Whether it’s through a sales call, marketing email, in-person meeting, or web chat, the key parts you need to build a powerful sales pitch remain the same. Check out these 4 sales pitch examples and learn just why they’re so effective.

1. Reach Out With A Personal Message

Make your message feel personal, so prospects see it isn’t another generic marketing pitch. Show that you understand them and their needs. That way, you aren’t reaching out to sell something – you’re reaching out to help.

It’s a common sales mistake to focus too much on how great your product or service is. Then it’s easy to neglect the reasons why it matters to your prospects. So start by researching their specific needs, and then draw attention to how your product or service addresses those needs.

Say you’re pitching a social media management tool, for example. You could check out your prospects’ social profiles and note any gaps in their posting and engagement. Draw attention to these personal pain points in the beginning of your sales pitch, and then position your product as a solution.

2. Offer Your Prospects A Compelling Solution

If your prospect knows anything about your product, they probably already know how it can help them. The real challenges are illustrating:

Why fixing this problem is worth spending their money, and

Why they should choose your product over a competitor

So your selling point shouldn’t be “Our tool helps keep your social profiles updated.” The pitch should focus on the end result, such as generating more leads, driving revenue from social, improving retention through better customer service, etc.

A powerful sales pitch will also include a unique selling proposition (USP) that differentiates you from your competitors. Whether it’s about your pricing, your company vision, your depth of experience, or anything else, your USP should set you apart in a way that your product or service alone might not.

If you’re looking for inspiration to upsell a client or highlight your best selling points, check out this database of sales pitch examples fromReally Good Emails.

3. Show Your Value With Social Proof

So you’ve personalized your message. You’ve figured out what makes you different from the competition. But your audience still sees your sales pitch as driven by your own agenda. Instead of taking everything you say at face value, they want to see outside evidence that your product/service is worthwhile.

That’s when it’s time to recruit a third-party opinion. Social proof is a way to make your sales pitches more effective, by sharing reviews and references from other clients and industry authorities.

Make this social proof easy to find by including it on your landing pages, cold pitch emails, and in-person sales presentations. Here are some examples of social proof you can use:

Third-party reviews. Most review aggregators, like Trustpilot, now offer widgets so that you can show a live score and the latest positive reviews on your website.

Case studies. Publish these on your company blog and newsletter. Reach out to your best clients and invite them to collaborate. This is a great way to reward customer loyalty, as well as collecting social proof!

Client interviews. Film video clips with top clients that you can share on your website and social media. You can also collect interviews as written articles or podcasts.

Statistics. Collect information about your business and your clients, and share it as widely as possible. Add statistics to your home page, and share industry studies on social media and with your clients. After all, “people trust numbers”.

Even if your business is just starting out and you haven’t garnered a lot of reviews yet, you can enlist the endorsements of other industry players to add social proof. All the top SaaS companies out there make great use of social proof on their landing pages. Advanced Web Ranking, for example, lists high-profile customers, endorsements from industry leaders, high-profile press mentions, etc:

4. Follow Up On First Impressions

Never waste a powerful sales pitch by failing to follow up. Sales and marketing data shows that persistence is the path to success: 50% of sales happen after the 5th contact, even though 44% of salespeople give up after one follow-up. You can stand out from the crowd just by persisting!

Include follow-ups as part of your sales pitch plan from the beginning. If it’s a cold email, schedule a series of automatic follow-ups. If it’s a sales call, use your CRM software to schedule and remind sales reps to follow up.

Following up is also very important for businesses that offer a freemium service and need to encourage users to upgrade to a paid plan. Here’s an example of a follow-up sales email from MarketingProfs that serves this purpose:

If you initiated contact over email, then you should have a full-scale lead nurturing program in place to follow up with your prospects. Unless you’re lucky enough to have a 100% success rate, use information about when people drop out of the process to identify pain points and areas where you can improve your pitch.

Despite your best efforts, the majority of your sales pitches will end with your prospect interested but not ready to purchase. So don’t make it a one-off opportunity to sell or fail. Build a relationship with your prospect over time to convince them to buy.

Next Steps For Powerful Sales Pitches

Succeeding at sales is a process that always entails significantly more failure than new business. But if you invest in the process, and commit to optimizing your sales pitch, then you’re already on track for success.

Use the lessons we’ve seen from these 4 sales pitch examples. If nothing else, hold on to these 4 takeaways:

Personalize your pitch

Offer solutions

Give social proof

Persevere with your leads and your strategy

With time, you’ll build a powerful sales strategy that helps you meet your revenue goals every time.